October stock royalties were good, with the image below being licensed for an ad campaign, both in print and web. My other favourite is the China Town street shot, which was licensed via Corbis. [Both images can be licensed via Aurora Photos - just click on the photo].

An Adelie penguin leaps into the sea, Antarctica. © www.thomaspickard.com

People eating Thai street food, Bangkok, Thailand. © www.thomaspickard.com

Aurora Photos introduced the myPhone Collection, which is surely the first collection of phone taken photos available for licensing via an established stock agency.

Personally, I think it is an awesome idea, though from the discussion over on A Photo Editor – Drowning in Photography – it became pretty clear that there is a love / hate relationship with photography produced on mobile phones. I said this in the comments, but I think  it is worth repeating here:

In the same way the Rein II sold for $4 million, there will surely be photo buyers who will find photos taken with an iPhone and license it. The value of the photo, whether you love it or hate it, is created the moment someone is willing to pay money for a license. The rest just doesn’t matter.

The whole iPhone debate seems so…boring. Why care about what tool a photo was created with?

Lastly, Photoshelter released a 48-page guide to Selling Stock Photography, which includes a two-page Photographer Profile on my good self (amongst numerous others).

While I could say so much more about the guide, all you need to know is this: it is free and full of great advice from a diverse group of photo buyers and photographers’ alike. Well worth a read.

Big thanks to Lauren at Photoshelter for the opportunity to share my experiences as one of the profiled photographers.

Cover of Trends in Biochemical Sciences. Photo © www.thomaspickard.com

One of the things which always blows me away, is where photos end up being published.

Take this cover for example, which I came across this week. The life cycle of this image can be summarised as:

I took the photograph in Antarctica;

I decided it was a keeper during my edit;

I submitted the photograph to my editor at Aurora Photos for consideration;

My editor accepted it, though I remember him telling me they have a lot of Antarctic imagery already;

I prep and upload the hi-resolution version to Aurora Photos servers;

Aurora Photos does its quality control checks on the image, then pushes it out through its distribution channels;

Sometime in June, a buyer finds the photo amongst the 22-million images available online at Getty Images;

Buyer decides the image is what they want and purchases a license to it;

Image ends up on the cover of Trends in Biochemical Sciences, July 2011 edition.

I wonder where else it may end up?

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Maldives aerial photo used as the cover for Maldives Finder 2011. Image © www.thomaspickard.com Double click on the image to license via Aurora Photos.

One of my favourite aerial images from the Maldives is going to be seen by a lot of people this year. The image above is gracing the cover of Maldives Finder 2011, which according to the Maldives Finder 2011 website is:

“… a first-of-its-kind comprehensive publication on the Maldives’ tourism industry. It is a celebration of the Maldives brand, and an informative guide to the destination. With academic and in-depth articles, the publication is a rich source of information on this unique tourism destination.”

The cover image of a dhoni travelling along a reef edge is available for licensing through my stock agent, Aurora Photos

Special thanks to Shafraz at the design firm responsible for putting together Maldives Finder 2011.

View and license more Maldives Aerial imagery via Aurora Photos.

Links:

Maldives Finder

Related Posts:

Aerial Swirl Maldives.

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Though most photographers’ have a love / hate relationship with Getty Images, Getty has a huge collection and more importantly a huge reach to existing and potential customers. Getty continues to license imagery of mine, which I know I wouldn’t be able to license myself, for the simple fact that I can’t connect with the diversity of buyers the way Getty does.

The iceberg photo was licensed via Getty Images as a Rights Managed license. The two vertical photos were licensed via Aurora Photos for inclusion in a book coming out in 2011 on luxury hotels. Once it is published, I can provide more details.

Water, waves and ice, Cierva Cove, Davis Coast, Graham Land, Antarctica, on the 18 November 2008. Click on the image to license it.

Portrait of Mauritian Guest Relations Manager Barbara Porydor at Shangri-La Resort, Villingili Island, Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Maldives, on the 31 January 2010.

Thatch covered outdoor lounge, Shangri-La Resort, Villingili Island, Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Maldives, on the 1 February 2010. Click on the image to license it.

Related Posts:

Processing, Processing, Processing

Vintage Stock Photography – The Way it Used To Be

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“Tuna, the fish that is the staple of kids lunches, sushi platters, and mediterranean cooking, is in decline. Conservation efforts to control the overfishing of tuna stocks, especially the giant bluefin and yellowfin, are growing, but enforcement continues to be a problem. If trends cannot be reversed, the fish that most recognize only in a can, may cease to be recognized in the seas.”

Tuna Decline photo feature via Aurora Photos.

Tuna Decline feature three of my images as well as images from several other contributing photographers’ at Aurora. Well worth a look.

Related Posts

Maldives Tuna

From the Archive: Tuna Factory

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This weeks photo from the archive comes from the west coast of Greenland.

I first visited Greenland in 2007 while working a 3 1/2 month summer on the polar ice breaker the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. Arriving on the east coast of Greenland in 2007 really reminded me of Antarctica. Greenland has the same immense scale and the incredible vastness that I always remember from Antarctica.

Like most polar places, the best light during summer tends to be late in the evening and very early in the morning. If the weather was clear, I would typically stay up late to take advantage of the supreme late evening light. In this instance, I took this photo on a return trip in 2008, this time to the west coast of Greenland.

See more of my imagery from Greenland via Aurora Photos.

I will also be adding a lot more Greenland imagery to my Greenland gallery at my stock library in the coming months.

License the image by clicking on it.

Embed and share at your own site by clicking the triangle in the lower right hand corner.

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If you shoot and license stock imagery like I do, then one of the things you always seem to be doing is editing, captioning and submitting imagery to distribution partners. I used to think there was a way around this, but reality has set in, along with regular stints in front of my iMac prepping imagery.

Working with a good stock library such as Aurora Photos is a great way to get my imagery out into the world and in front of potential buyers. The speed to market with Aurora is incredible.

I regularly have my submissions reviewed within a day or two and once I have provided the high-resolution files, they are made live on the Aurora site within days. Pushing the photos out to distribution partners such as Masterfile and Corbis, takes a little longer, but not that much longer. Some recent portrait work accepted by Aurora is already available for licensing at Corbis. That all happened within about 8-weeks, which is fast!

Working with larger, well established stock libraries works for me as I photograph quite a bit of what I consider general travel photography. If you don’t have a large, niche collection such as Art Wolfe, then leveraging off a distribution relationship with a stock library can make a lot of sense, especially if you are starting out in stock photography.

As I have been developing myself a niche and a client base for unique Maldives photography, I have been busy this year populating my own stock library – Thomas Pickard Stock Archive – with my Maldives photography. Leveraging off technology providers such as Photoshelter, I can now license and deliver hi-resolution photos direct to my existing client base, through my own stock site. This works well, in part because I am developing a niche in Maldives photography and also because I have an ever expanding client base seeking Maldives photography.

Below are just a few examples of licensing sales in the last few months. It never ceases to amaze me which images are licensed.

Licensed via Corbis. Image #: 42-22229345

Licensed via Corbis. Image #: 42-22229424

Licensed via Thomas Pickard Stock Archive. Image #: 08710.

Licensed via Getty Images. Image #: 94979111

Licensed via Getty Images. Image #: 90880255

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Double page spread in Qatar Airlines Oryx Magazine. Published 1st February 2010.

As a photographer there is almost nothing I love better than seeing my work printed full page.

This opening spread ran in the February 2010 issue of Oryx Magazine and was the opener of a six page article I produced, complete with imagery.

The image at left, showing a board walk set amongst turquoise blue waters in the Maldives, can be licensed via Aurora Photos.

The image at right, showing a dhoni travelling along an atoll edge in the Maldives, can be licensed via Aurora Photos.

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Three men clad in aprons and rubber boots, cleaning, cutting and disposing of Yellowfin Tuna, at a tuna processing plant in the Maldives, on the 31 October 2007. The Yellowfin will be processed into tuna steaks for export to the European market.

This weeks photos comes from inside a small tuna processing factory on Hulhumale’ Island, just across the way from Male’, the capital of the Maldives.

Many times the hardest thing I do as a photographer is figure out a way to arrange access to specific locations. As a photographer I rely on friends-of-friends as well as people known in the industry as Fixers. As the name implies, Fixers fix stuff. And by stuff, I mean anything that I may need, whether it is arranging a meeting with a person to gain access to a facility, organising transport, translating in the field…the list is almost endless.

The best Fixers are the one’s that become your friends.

In the Maldives I was fortunate to become friends with Ahmed Zahid, who was instrumental in getting me access to countless places throughout the country. Zahid arranged the meeting with a person that knew a tuna factory owner. That person then arranged another meeting for me with the tuna factory owner. I knew that when I met the tuna factory owner that I would have to be bringing something to the table. Rocking up and asking for access to take photos simply because you are a photographer, is rarely a good enough reason.

While I try and limit what I am offering in exchange for access, in this instance the tuna factory owner would only allow me access if I provided a selection of hi-res images for him to use to promote his business. In the end, I negotiated unlimited photographic access to the tuna factory processing floor. In exchange I provided a selection of images for the tuna factory owner to use. They weren’t the best photos, but they were good enough for what the tuna factory owner wanted.

I would later go on to license a number of the images (separate to the one’s provided to the tuna factory owner) to Serendib Magazine to accompany an article I produced on tuna processing plants in the Maldives.

[This photo can be licensed via Aurora Photos. Just double click on the photo to license it].

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It was 6-months before I managed to get myself onto a commercial fishing boat. I had taken a regional flight from the capital Male’ to Addu Atoll, the southern most atoll in the country. I met Ahmed Zahid – a friend-of-a-friend – who knew some fishing captains. Not long after I found myself boarding a 30-metre super dhoni (traditional Maldivian vessel), along with 15 or so Maldivian commercial fishermen, all of them strangers.

For the next 24-hours I drank endless cups of Nescafe 3-in-1 (think the sweetest, strongest instant coffee you can find), I slept on damp decks with fish smelling nets as pillows and I dealt with constant nausea from the open ocean swells. In between, I shot 600 plus frames of the fishermen doing what they do.

That day I learnt that even some of the tallest stories can be true.

It was true that fishermen use a barbless hook and they literally hook and flick the tuna onto the back deck of the dhoni. It was also true that they can catch tons of tuna in just one day. This trip alone, the crew pulled aboard 7-tonnnes of Skipjack Tuna.

I successfully sold this story (photos and words) to Sri Lankan Airlines Magazine Serendib, which was subsequently published in the November/December 2006 issue.

In my next installment I’ll recount my second commercial fishing trip, which lasted 5-days. The first, second and fifth image are available for licensing via Aurora Photos. Just double click on the image to license.

Commercial fishermen searching for bait fish at night in a lagoon, Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Maldives, on the 6 June 2006. Commercial fishing in the Maldives is the second largest employer after the tourism industry. The main fishing industry is centered on pole and line fishing for Skip Jack Tuna and hand line fishing for Yellowfin Tuna. The Maldives is a major exporter of tuna to European and Asian markets.

Commercial fishermen sleeping on the back deck of a commercial fishing dhoni (traditional Maldivian boat), off the coast of Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Indian Ocean, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

Commercial fisherman sleeping on the back deck of a commercial fishing dhoni (traditional Maldivian boat), off the coast of Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Indian Ocean, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

Commercial fishermen pulling aboard a Skip Jack tuna on a commercial fishing dhoni (traditional Maldivian boat), off the coast of Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Indian Ocean, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

A commercial fisherman pulling aboard a Skip Jack tuna on a commercial fishing dhoni (traditional Maldivian boat), off the coast of Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Indian Ocean, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

Commercial fishermen getting ready to unload Skip Jack Tuna to a processing vessel, Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

Commercial fishermen getting ready to unload Skip Jack Tuna to a processing vessel, Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

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